Wednesday

Jun 20, 2018 at 5:19 PMJun 20, 2018 at 6:10 PM

When Celtics guard Marcus Smart says he hasn't put much thought into his restricted free agency, given some of his other family concerns, it's tempting to believe him far more than you would any other athlete in a similar situation.

WALTHAM — Marcus Smart is potentially a little more than a week away from a decision that could determine the course of the rest of his basketball career.

When the Celtics guard says he hasn’t put much thought into his restricted free agency, given some of his other family concerns, it’s tempting to believe him far more than you would any other athlete in a similar situation.

As Smart worked his way back on the court following thumb ligament surgery late in the first round of the playoffs, he revealed his rehab had not been the only thing weighing on him. His 63-year-old mother, Camellia, had been diagnosed with cancer in January and had just recently shared the diagnosis with him.

Smart returned to the floor for Game 5 of the Celtics’ opening-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks and helped Boston all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals before walking off the TD Garden parquet for perhaps the final time in green.

Now less than two weeks away from the start of free agency on July 1, he said during a break in his annual YounGameChanger camp at Brandeis University that while he does believe he will be back with Boston next season, he hasn’t spent as much time dwelling on it as one might imagine.

“My No. 1 focus is my family right now,” he said. “I have a lot of stuff going on with my mom right now. She needs all the positive thinking and brain capacity that I can give her. That’s where my mental focus is.”

Smart revealed that chemotherapy has taken away his mother’s ability to walk, and that she now needs 24-hour assistance as she deals with kidney stones in her one remaining kidney.

“But her spirits are up,” he said. “That’s all I can ask for.”

He said he hopes to spend as much time with her as possible this summer, but that proximity to their home outside of Dallas will not necessarily be a factor in his decision whether to sign an offer sheet somewhere other than Boston.

“No, that doesn’t weigh in,” he said. “Wherever I go, if that’s here or wherever that’s at, my mom is going to be ecstatic for me. Being away from her is hard, but she understands.”

Smart said he has not been given a dollar amount up to where the Celtics would match an offer sheet from another team.

“I have no clue,” he said. “You have to ask [Celtics president of basketball operations] Danny [Ainge]. That is those guys’ jobs. To be honest, I really haven’t thought of any of that. It hasn’t even crossed my mind. It’s all on Danny and those guys.”

The sides negotiated a contract extension prior to last October’s deadline to avoid restricted free agency, but they could not agree on terms prior to the season.

Smart said he hasn’t paid much attention to recent trade rumors involving the Celtics.

“There’s free agency every year,” he said. “There’s a draft every year. It’s no different.

“You can’t worry about those things. You let the guys who are supposed to handle it, handle it, and everything else will fall into place.”

For the fourth year, Smart made Waltham one of the places he held his camp this week. Each year — even in the days after his mother went through quadruple bypass surgery in 2015 — he has made it a point to be there in person for at least part of the camp and interact with the young players.

While what happens with his contract over the next weeks and months will have a lot to do with whether he is back with a fifth annual camp next June, he made it clear on Wednesday he has cherished the time he has spent here.

“Boston is like a second home to me,” he said. “Boston has shown me so much love in my years since year one. You always want to give back to the city you love because it’s hard to find people, things, anything that really cares about you, or that you care about, that’s genuine.

“Boston is a genuine place.”

Scott Souza can be reached at ssouza@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Scott_Souza.

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